American Heroes: Twenty Americans Who Were Told No

By J. Carter Webb

A one-armed pitcher throws a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium. A manicurist learns French so a country that won't teach her to fly can't stop her. A construction worker goes under a moving subway train to save a stranger. A team of engineers blows up three rockets, then lands the fourth on its feet.

American Heroes tells twenty true stories of ordinary Americans who were counted out - by an expert, by their own body, by their country, or by plain bad luck - and what they did next.

Some were geniuses. Some weren't. Some won; some never got the credit while they lived. What they shared was one refusal: when someone told them what they were, they treated it as a guess, not a verdict - and went to find out.

Written for readers twelve and up but built for any age, this is not a book about being special. It's a book about the long, unglamorous, unwitnessed work that actually moves the world, and about what becomes possible the moment you stop accepting someone else's estimate of you as the final word.

They were told no. They went to find out.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H95GFPSW
• ISBN13: 9798187586165
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"